ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

63 more members of Kurdish militias have been ‘neutralized’ in the Syrian area of Afrin, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement on January 31. According to the statement, in total 712 so-called terrorists have been neutralized since the start of Operation Olive Branch On Janary 20. However, the numbers provided by the Turkish General Staff in its statements are clearly overestimated, according to local sources. Furthermore, the Turkish Armed Forces and its proxies from the Free Syrian Army have still been not able to break the defense of Kurdish YPG/YPJ forces in a number of points across the Afrin area. If Turksih forces are not able to do this in the near future, the Turkish leadership may face additional pressure from both the international community and own population. Turkish forces are at Bursaya Mount:

Illustrative image On January 24, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence announced in an official statement that it conducted two successful security operations and foiled a plan of the Saudi Intelligence to carry out a terrorist bombing inside Iran, according to Iranian Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). According to the official statement, Iranian intelligence agents seized 23 remote controlled IEDs in the first operation. The IEDs were allegedly smuggled into the eastern border of Iran. In the second operation, equipment required for making bombs, including TNT, C-4, explosive kits, 150 explosive boosters and light weapons were seized by the Iranian intelligence in the western Iranian province of Marvin. The Iranian accusations against Saudi Arabia may be true becauuse Saudi officials have threatened Iran on many occasions. On May 3, 2017 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman even said that Saudi Arabia “will not wait until the battle becomes in Saudi Arabia but we will work to ...

Click to see the full-size image On January 24, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) redeployed the Russian-backed Qalamun Shield Forces (QSF) from the Eastern Ghouta region to the southeastern Idlib countryside to counter the growing threat of ISIS, according to a report of the pro-government blog al-Masdar. ISIS fighters were besieged in the northern eastern Hama countryside and parts of the southeastern Idlib countryside by the SAA and its allies on January 20. Since then, the terrorist group has started conducting hit and run attacks against SAA units east of the town of Sinjar in southeastern Idlib. Click to see the full-size image The ISIS-linked news agency Amaq reported on January 24 that ISIS fighters killed five Syrian soldiers and captured two others in an ambush east of Sinjar. ISIS fighters also captured three vehicles and several weapons from the SAA. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Clic...

Photos of Strykers and up-armored Humvees flying U.S. flags were posted on social media over the weekend after the U.S. regional command confirmed that Special Forces troops in Syria had moved toward Manbij. (Qalaat Al Mudiq/Twitter) On January 24, the Turkish Army artillery shelled a position of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the village of al-Dindaniyah west of Manbij in the Syrian province of Aleppo, according to the SDF’s Manbij Military Council (MMC). Kurdish sources added that the village of Shuyukh north of Manbij was also shelled by the Turkish Army. The MMC reported that several warplanes of the US-led coalition flew over city after the shelling in what appears to be a US warning to the Turkish Army. Earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned during a speech to the heads of local governments in the city of Ankara that the Turkish Army will extend its ongoing military operation against Kurdish militias in the Afrin area to include Manbij. “...

When a small, $400 remote-controlled quadcopter drone landed on the grounds of the White House in February 2015, Obama administration officials were in full freak-out mode. Just 10 days before that incident, officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military, and the FAA huddled for a “summit” regarding a danger that they had been contemplating for years: Terrorists’ use of weaponized drones for attacks or assassination. As reported by  Wired , while the conference was open to the public it was not open to the press, but one attendee  told the online tech magazine  it was an eye-opening experience: The officials played videos of low-cost drones firing semi-automatic weapons, revealed that Syrian rebels are importing consumer-grade drones to launch attacks, and flashed photos from an exercise that pitted $5,000 worth of drones against a convoy of armored vehicles. (The drones won). However, the attendee noted, the most impactful visual aide was ...

Democrats, some Republicans and the government of Mexico have all criticized President Donald J. Trump’s proposed border wall, with many of them either vowing it won’t get built or, in Mexico’s case, it won’t be built with pesos. But special operations teams from the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. military prove without question  why  the wall  must be built  if we’re ever to get serious about  border security :  It’s impenetrable . For weeks these highly capable individuals have been attempting to breach all eight of the models/prototypes that have been built thus far for the Trump administration to choose. Over the course of these weeks,  The Associated Press  reported, teams attempted to breach “using jackhammers, saws, torches and other tools and climbing devices,” but were  unsuccessful every single time . In short,  any one of these designs  would make an effective anti-drug smuggling, anti-human smuggling, national secu...

Qaher 2-M missile Over 35 members of forces loyal to Saudi-backed President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed and over 20 others were injured in a missile strike at their military site in al-Khayami in the Yemeni province of Ta’izz on January 20, the pro-Houthi TV network al-Masirah reported. According to al-Masirah, the Houthis used a Qaher 2-M ballistic missile in this attack. Pro-Saudi sources claimed that al-Masirah overestimated the casualties of Saudi-backed forces and said that only about 10 people were killed in the attack. The incident allegedly took place during a military inspection. A deputy interior minister of the Hadi government, Naser Lakhshaa, was attending it. The official survived the attack.

258 fighters have finished training to joint so-called security forces of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the SDF’s media wing reported on January 23. The fighters likely finished the program developed by the US under its initiative to establish a 30,000-strong “border force” in northeastern Syria. The idea faced a strong resistance from Turkey and became one of the reasons behind the Ankara’s Operation Olive Branch in the SDF-held area of Afrin. On January 18, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Washington’s intentions had been “misportrayed” and it had no plans to establsih “a border security force”.  This statement clearly contradicted to the Pentagon’s official announcements. and does not mean that the program was really halted. Most likely, the “bordr security force” just changed its name as Kurdish YPG/YPJ militias were rebranded into the SDF. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-s...

On January 20, ISIS fighters launched a rapid attack on positions of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies south of the Syrian capital, Damascus and captured several key buildings in al-Zain neighborhood between the Yarmouk refugee camp and Yalda district, according to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq. The media outlet added that ISIS fighters killed three members of HTS and its allies. From its side, Syrian opposition sources revealed that most of al-Zain is now under control of ISIS as HTS and its allies failed to hold their positions inside it. The strategic neighborhood will allow ISIS fighters to launch attacks inside Yalda district located only 2km west of the Damascus airport highway. Video Player 00:00 00:40 HTS and several armed groups linked to the Palestinian Hamas Movement refused to withdraw from the districts of Aqraba, Beit Sahm, Yalda and Babila on December 2017. In response, hundreds of locals who are facing the threat of the nearb...

There is a  growing consensus among many observers in Washington that the national security agencies have become completely politicized  over the past seventeen years and are now pursuing selfish agendas that actually endanger what remains of American democracy. As Philip Giraldi notes,  up until recently it has been habitual to refer to such activity as the Deep State, which is perhaps equivalent to the Establishment in that it includes financial services, the media, major foundations and constituencies, as well as lobbying groups, but  we are now witnessing an evolutionary process in which the national security regime is exercising power independently . Nowhere is that “independence” of the ‘state within a state’ more evident than in the blatant and egregious news this week that The National Security Agency destroyed surveillance data it pledged to preserve  in connection with pending lawsuits and apparently never took some of the steps it told a federa...

Illustrative image Units of the Turkish Ground Forces entered Syria’s Afrin area at 11:05 AM Sunday, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has announced,  according to the Turksih media . Ground units crossed the border from  Turkey’s Kilis . “The operation will have four stages, there will be a 30-kilometer buffer zone,” Yıldırım said commenting the development. Meanwhile, members of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army attacked positions of YPG/YPJ militias in the same area. The advance followed a major artillery and air bombardment campaign of the Turkish military against Kurdish forces in the area. On Saturday,  the Turkish Armed Forces officially announced the start of “Operation Olive Branch”  to combat what Ankara calls “terrorism” in the area. Turkish forces shell YPG positions: